Browsing by Subject "työn muutos"
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(2015)This Master's thesis addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by the aging and aged (45-64-year-olds), and offers suggestions for solutions for the situation in the Finnish labour market. The purpose of this thesis is to highlight and critically evaluate those paradoxes in the working life, in which political aims and societal actions do not seem to meet with the actual situation in the labour market. These paradoxes are related to the themes of extending the length of careers, labour shortage and ageism. In Finland the topic has been widely discussed in the public domain because of the changing labour market and the difficult economic situation first during the depression in the early 90's and now again after the recession between 2008 and 2009. The research data consists of columns published in the national newspaper Helsingin Sanomat from 2009 when the recession ended until the research was conducted in 2014. The method of analysis is qualitative content analysis. All of the research questions used in the analysis were data-oriented. Age-related challenges in the working life are scrutinised in the research through exploring working life systems, individual qualities and diversity in work communities. The suggestions for solutions are scrutinised from the perspectives of responsibility and tangible actions. The conclusions of this research suggest there are multiple problems and challenges related to the aging and the aged in the labour market in relation to recruiting and laying off employees, inflexibility of pension schemes and discriminatory attitudes. On the other hand, there are also positive connotation with mature age such as work and life experience, flexibility and loyalty towards an employer. The suggestions for improvements highlight joint responsibility of the situation shared by political leaders, employer and the aging themselves. The suggestions also emphasise the importance of more flexible solutions for the working life and eliminating ageism. Overall, eliminating ageism in the working life is an complex issue as there are so many parties involved, it is difficult to locate and the experiences of discrimination vary. In any case, examining all the contradictions and paradoxes related to age and the working life and taking them apart makes it easier to relate the challenges the aging population faces and their possibilities in the labour market. By doing this it is possible to affect the actual situation in the labour market.
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(2021)In a varied working environment, individuals are expected to have an increasingly strong ability to tolerate change and adversity. Several research findings point out that a motivated person performs better in challenges, which enables them to succeed in their changing tasks. Therefore, it is important to understand how the factors that influence motivation are un-derstood on the individual level. Quantitative research has widely studied areas of work moti-vation, often using self-determination theory. In this research the theory of self-determination was used to pursue to give structure to the individual’s perception of factors influencing work motivation, and individual’s perceptions and experiences were emphasized rather than their generalizations and connections. The purpose of this qualitative research was to describe and understand media workers` per-ceptions of their motivation and how environment appears as part of perceptions. This research was carried out in collaboration with one media company. The data was collected with semi-structured interviews, where ten employees of the media company were interviewed. Educa-tional background of the interviewees was at least a bachelor’s degree, and all of them were currently working in various media positions. Among the interviewees were digital salespeople, product developers and a journalist manager. The data was analyzed with thematic analysis. As motivating factors media workers emphasized the possibility of influencing their own work, freedom, and responsibility, as well as internal rewards from work. Interviewees perceived as internal rewards the meaning of the work, self-development, and social support, and these were perceived as more significant than the value of the external rewards. The expectations to the organization were centered around development-friendly and equality-oriented work com-munity, where people work together but individual operating models are allowed. Based on this research, organizations would benefit from focusing on designing operating models and prac-tices which would allow for more flexible opportunities in considering individual wishes and goals in future decision making.
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(2020)Generation Z is currently the youngest generation in the working life. They are described as a different generation who is unwilling to commit to organizations. The purpose of this study was to add knowledge about Generation Z’s organizational commitment. The aim of this study was to examine Generation Z’s thoughts on organizational commitment and to analyse the underlying factors affecting it. Several studies have shown that strongly committed personnel is a prerequisite to an organization’s success and competitiveness. This, together with the fact that there are only few studies regarding Generation Z, raises the importance of this study. Eight working representatives of Generation Z participated in the study. The participants had graduated from universities and their backgrounds were from economical and educational sciences. The study utilised qualitative research methods and the data was collected by individual semi-structured interviews. Theoretical content analysis was used as a research method. The analysis was steered by the data itself together with Meyer & Allen’s (1990) three component model of organizational commitment. Different organizational and individual related factors were found to be influencing Generation Z’s organizational commitment. Opportunities to develop oneself, work community and balance in life were highlighted in the interviews as the most valued factors. The influencing factors and thoughts regarding organizational commitment both seemed to have signs of the ongoing change in work. While the representatives of Generation Z described themselves to be committed to organizations, they considered moving from one organization to another to be normal in today’s working life. Generation Z’s representatives felt that committing only to couple organizations in your career would be odd and scary. Based on this study, organizations should try to figure out how to commit young employees in the long run.
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(2019)The aim of the study was to research those factors that strengthen employees’ work en-gagement or threaten to maintain or develop it in the context of work change. Theoretical back-ground consisted of job demands and resources model developed by Demerouti et al. and Deci’s and Ryan’s self-determination theory. Previous research show that work engagement is strengthened by job resources. Job demands and weakened job resources, in turn, appear to be a threat to main-tained or developed work engagement. The focus of the study is on job resources and other possible factors that strengthen employees’ work engagement or threaten its development or maintenance. The context of work change is strongly linked to digitalisation and the effects of it. The study exam-ines the factors that strengthen work engagement and threaten its development or maintenance emerging from employee narratives. Eight narrative interviews were implemented in autumn 2018. In addition, the study ap-plied the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) to measure the amount of employees’ work en-gagement. The material was analyzed by narrative methods in the form of thematic narrative analy-sis and expectation analysis. In this study, the elements of work engagement appeared in line with the previous research and the theoretical framework. Job resources strengthened work engagement, while resource depletion and emerged demands hampered the maintenance and development of it. Expectation analysis showed that fulfilled positive expectations and unfulfilled negative expecta-tions strengthened work engagement indirectly through job resources. Unfulfilled positive expecta-tions and fulfilled negative expectations, in turn, led to resource depletion and emerged demands further undermining the development and maintenance of work engagement. Depending on job re-sources, job demands, and expectations, the changes in work appeared to be a resource that strengthens work engagement or a threat to its development and maintenance.
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(2020)The purpose of this study was to find out how the employees of one HR service organization perceive the organizational culture within the organization. This study focuses on their perceptions of self-direction and coaching-based leadership, which are emphasized in organization’s strategy. The theoretical framework of this study consists of work-life change and the concepts of control, self-direction and coaching-based leadership. This study is a qualitative study which research material consists of seven interviews of HR consultants working in Company X. The interviews were held in the spring of 2020 part of them held face to face and part of them via the Internet. The analysis was done by using phenomenography. The change in society and working life seems to be the basis to the fact that self-direction and coaching-based leadership are underlined in Company X’s strategy. Coaching-based leadership and self-direction seem to increase well-being at work, work motivation and work efficiency. Themes related to freedom, responsibility and control are highlighted in HR consultant’s perceptions of self-direction. Freedom is associated with more responsibilities and self-directed employees control their work, but the work is also directed by external factors such as different targets and frames. In this study it became clear that also self-directed employees need support and guidance in their work. Leaders are expected to support and facilitate their subordinates. The idea of coaching-based leadership was considered beneficial but some of the HR consultants felt that the supervising in the company actually wasn’t coaching based. The resources of leaders were perceived as the biggest challenge of coaching-based leadership in Company X. When changing the organizational culture there should be adequate resources and a collective understanding of the new way of working so that the change wouldn’t remain only at the rhetorical level.
Now showing items 1-5 of 5